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School sports culture in the US vs France (Niveau B1)

303 Views 0 Liked Posted on: September 16th 2024

School sports culture in the US vs France

Niveau B2

Photo de couverture : © YES Market Media/ Shutterstock

Whether we like it or not, physical education is part of our school curriculum. However, sports clubs in American schools are very important, whereas they don’t really exist in French schools.

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In 2018, in the United States, there were 929,000 high school basketball players, 1,006,000 American football players and 438,000 baseball players. We can’t compare these numbers to French schools because, sure, there are physical education classes but there aren’t school sports teams or school sports leagues.

Why the difference? French children have longer school hours and more homework than American children, but the culture of sports in the US is also different compared to France.

In the US, school children have educational needs linked to sports that French children don’t have. For example, every year, 160,000 students qualify for free university education if they are recruited into the university sports team. Many parents enrol their children into sports when they are young because they want their children to qualify for free education later. In France, public education is free, so the needs are not the same in the different countries.

Another reason that sports is so popular in American high schools is because the country has a rampant sports culture. Sports are extremely popular in the US. Each city has a local team that citizens support. This is not necessarily the case in France. Events like the Super Bowl and NBA finals are national events that everyone watches.

 

This sports culture in the US is also often a generational tradition. A lot of children play a sport because their parents played the same sport at school. This cultural tradition doesn’t really exist in France. French parents tend to let their children choose the sport that pleases them.

In France, there aren’t school sports teams, but rather club sports teams. Children go to those clubs after school or at the weekends. However, France does have “sport étude” in some schools which means children do schoolwork for half a day and practice sports in the afternoons. “Sport etudes” are seen as elite activities, the entry exams are rigorous and the activity is costly.

What would you like for French children: a sports system and culture like the US has, or do you prefer the French way?

whether: si

a school curriculum: un programme scolaire

whereas: tandis que

sure: bien sûr

homework: des devoirs

to enrol: s’inscrire

a high school : un lycée

rampant: endémique

to support: encourager

to tend to: avoir tendance à faire

to please: faire plaisir

rather: plutôt

costly: cher

Posted in: Culture

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